RTB need advice???

yes -- hello...any advice would be helpful.......

I just recently aquired my first pair of red tailed boa constrictors. They are beautiful especially the one that is rumored to be female. I will post pics later, but I have a few important questions, as this is my first time caring for RTB..

Here is what I know about them....
they are related, 4 yrs old, the prevoius owner raised them from babies, they are both approximately 4 ft long(seems short to me for being 4yrs old), father was supposedly wild caught(8ft)mother CB(10ft)...they shed in one piece as i was givin two recent sheds..they are feeding on frozen mice (4 each) every other week..did i mention that they are beautiful!!..I love the grey and black colors , looks almost fake??? ANYWAYS here are my concerns.....

the previous owner handled them frequently, and kept the pretty tame. She was not able to handle the as much over the past year due to health conditions, so they have become somewhat wild...they are especially aggresive during fedding and seem to go into a frenzy, striking at anything near them until they are covered with a towel...this stops the feeding process...as shown by the previous owner??....they prefer to be fed by waving the prey in front of them and tapping them on the nose...is the feeding aggression normal or can i eventually calm them through handling and other feeding strategies...such as maybe leaving the mouse in the tub in front of them????

Any ideas will be helpful...also I love to research and any other great links would be appreciated...thanks all!!!

First off, are you keeping them separately? Can you describe their enclosures and heat? Are you sure they are RTBs?

i am currently housing them together(they have been their entire life), but I have been told that this is stressful on adult snakes??? They are in an 80 aquarium w/ lights on one end(88-90f), heat pad in the middle, with a cool side thats around 80-81 degrees, humidity 60 percent-yes they look like pretty typical RTB...thanks

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Originally Posted by chefjeff

i am currently housing them together(they have been their entire life), but I have been told that this is stressful on adult snakes??? They are in an 80 aquarium w/ lights on one end(88-90f), heat pad in the middle, with a cool side thats around 80-81 degrees, humidity 60 percent-yes they look like pretty typical RTB...thanks

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I would get them separated. As far as feeding, take a frozen thawed rat (warm it up well under hot running water) and leave it in the cage. Don't hit the snake in the face with it. That would cause aggression if you did it to me, so its no wonder the snake is pissed. Boas dont need that kind of prodding to eat, they are normally excellent eaters. Pictures would be good!

i normaly feed outside of the cage, in a large rubber tub--do you recommend feeding inside the cage??

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Originally Posted by chefjeff

i normaly feed outside of the cage, in a large rubber tub--do you recommend feeding inside the cage??

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With snakes that big, yes...Once they are in feeding mode, they are best left alone. But get them into separate enclosures first. Until then you dont have much choice but to feed in a separate tub.

make for damn sure you dont feed them in the same cage. they will fight over food and you and them will get cut to pieces. if they are truelly only 4ft long go to bed bath and beyond and buy some iras cb110. they are pleanty big enaugh for each to live in. just get another under the tank heater and place the heaters on one end of the cages.

your boas will be more happy and healthy if you split them up and use these containers. hell you could sell that 80 gallon tank that they are in and make enaugh to build your own rack.

dont get flusterd with them being so aggressive during feeding time. i know it kind of sux, but it is also proof that your snakes are healthy. i love a snake with a monster feeding responsce.

you need to swich them over to rats. 4 mice is a joke for a 4 ft boa. feed them each one med rat every other week. they will not get much bigger than they are right now but if you want them to get bigger start feeding a large every other week.

please dont just take this advice and wait to do it. start right now. before it is to late.

keep us posted. best of luck and happiness with your new boas.

matt
pm me any time if you need help. or suggestions.

Certainly seperate them as soon as possible into two secure enclosures. I would get them over on to rats. You shouldn't have a problem with that as boa's don't seem to be very prey specific at all. We just got a sub-yearling boa last month and he switched from mice to rats in a nano-second (oh...it's not a mouse....oh well...it's food...SNAP!)

BCI's have an aggressive feeding response normally. There's absolutely nothing wrong or abnormal about that at all. Seperate them and feed them in their enclosures. If you move around them when they are hungry or hunting they will strike at the tank so don't do that. Some boa's if they smack their nose striking will decide to hunt another day LOL. As long as you do regular maintenance/cleaning in their enclosures and reach in to handle them they won't equate your hand with feeding as you may read here or there.

Just don't handle them with any prey smell on your hands and never EVER hand feed a boa (well any snake but especially a boa), they have very long strike ranges. My husband used a slightly too short set of tongs once to feed a f/t prey to a 6 foot boa....ended up with a lovely "road rash" type bite from the strike being a bit too long.